An explosion at a canola crushing plant in Ste. Agathe, Man., has caused millions of dollars in damage, say company officials.
“We’re thinking that it’s in excess of a million and it could even be a few million,” said Peter Kozicz, chief executive officer of Associated Proteins, which operates the plant south of Winnipeg.
The April 5 explosion occurred in a cake cooler at the plant. The chamber cools the canola meal after it comes off the press.
However, Kozicz said it’s not known what ignited the canola meal dust.
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The crushing plant has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes a day and employs 40 people. Kozicz expects the processing of oil to resume this week and half of the crushing plant will restart in two weeks. The remainder of the capacity will resume later in May.
The fire destroyed one cake cooker, which will have to be replaced. The plant’s other cake cooler will be repaired. High volumes of air pass through a cooler to reduce temperature before the meal is stored.
The plant was operating when the meal dust exploded early in the morning. No one was injured.
The plant employs an expeller press system that uses only mechanical means to crush canola. Most plants use solvent to extract oil from canola seeds.
